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Zach Huston says he and three or four other openly gay students experienced taunts and bullying at Unioto High School for “being different.”

The youth and his mother, Rebecca Collins, complain that their bullying complaints to the school principal were met with indifference, including his comment that the district consists of “Bible-beaters ... what can you expect?”

What the 15-year-old viewed as attacks based on his sexual orientation culminated in violence on Oct. 17, when he was beaten by another student as he walked into a classroom at the school in rural Ross County.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, which represents the youth and his mother, announced yesterday that it is giving the Union-Scioto school district an opportunity to avert legal action by discussing changes to prevent the bullying of students.

“The school had a responsibility to protect Zach, but looked the other way for over a year while he was verbally and physically bullied,” James L. Hardiman, ACLU of Ohio legal director, said at a Downtown news conference.

The ACLU is asking the Union-Scioto schools to change their anti-bullying policy to specifically mention sexual orientation, increase education of students and the staff, and take steps to protect students who report bullying from retaliation.

Unioto High School Principal James Obsorne said the school district would not comment because of the threat of a lawsuit. Union-Scioto Superintendent Dwight Garrett did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The attack on Huston, which was captured on a cellphone video that went viral on the Internet, prompted the Ross County prosecutor to charge 15-year-old Levi Sever with a delinquency count of assault.

Huston said he was willing to speak about what occurred to him in hopes of protecting other gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender students from bullying.

“I feel great to try to help other people,” he said. “You have to always be yourself and stand up for what you believe in.”

State law requires schools to adopt policies prohibiting all bullying but does not require districts to adopt language explicitly protecting students who are gay or lesbian. Some districts have adopted such language.

The video captured national attention, prompting an online petition that has attracted more than 80,000 “signatures” asking the school district to protect LGBT students from bullying and expel Huston’s assailant.

The school district initially suspended the beating suspect for three days, but later “revisited” the discipline after the video surfaced. School officials have not specified what discipline the student received.

Collins said the girl who recorded the attack on her son was aware the assault was planned but did not notify school officials.